EDUCATION RESOURCES

Sometimes, transferring credits is more of a hassle

6/06/13

According to new research, you might not have to worry so much if you can’t transfer old high school or college credits – especially from science classes – toward your college diploma. Adult learners going back to school might be better off taking their biology credits and other science courses after they’ve enrolled at a school – they might even earn a higher GPA by doing so, according to a report published in the “Journal of Animal Science.”

The study included more than 1,500 students from a Kansas-based university who took a freshman biology course, as well as a more rigorous genetics class in later years. What the results demonstrated is that students did better when they waited at least a year to take the genetics course.

“Genetics is a very hard class,” said Dr. Jennifer Minick Bormann, an associate professor in the department of animal sciences and industry at the university. “That is not a good place for a brand new freshman.”

The course is especially difficult for those students who start their freshman year having already completed their biology requirements in high school, and the results show that these particular pupils do not perform nearly as well as those who take the courses at the university.